Coat rack



y 1933- w. P. DE SAUSSURE, JR 1,911,109

COAT RACK Filed Oct mir 4:. ATTORNEY Patented May 23, 1933 UNlTED STATES PATENT QFFEQE WILLIAM 1. DE SAUSSURE, JR., OF ENGLEWOD D, NEVJ JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO DE SAUSS'URE EQUIPMENT COMPANY, OF WEST NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, A. COR- PORATION OF DELAWARE COAT RACK Application filed October 10, 1931.

This invention relates to metal frame coat racks, and has particular reference to the hooks therefor and the manner in which they are attached to the rack frame.

In my co-pending application Serial No. 325,542 (Patent- No. 1,835,762, issued Dec. 8, 1931), I have disclosed a hat and coat rack in which the coats are hung directly on hooks and a rack in which the coats are placed on hangers and the latter are hung by hooks inserted through apertures in the frame. In the form in which the coats are hung directl'y on hooks, the frame includes a longitudinal horizontal member to which a series of coat M hooks are attached by welding.

The permanent connection of the coat hooks to such bars has various disadvantages. Thus, as coat hooks are not needed with a hanger type of rack, it is not practical to construct a single standard type of frame comprising end frames and a horizontal bar with which garment supporting frames of either hook or hanger type may be used as desired.

Further, it is customary to make such hooks of cast iron and consequently they are brittle and easily broken. When such hooks are attached to the hook-bar by welding, it is often difiicult to replace a broken hook. Attaching these by screws or bolts is inconvenient for replacement and is relatively expensive.

According to the present invention, the hooks are made readily detachable and re placeable so that a single standard type of frame may be used for either hook or hanger type of rack, and, when the rack is of the hook type, broken hooks may be readily replaced. Detachability is obtained WibllOllt the use of threaded parts by employing interlocking flanges on the hooks and the hookbar. These interlocking flanges may be very cheaply and simply formed by bending sheet metal and/or uniting channels, plates or other simple structural forms by welding. With these interlocking flanges the hooks may be brought into and out of engagement with the hook-bar by sliding them on the latter.

An approved form of construction is Serial No. 568,045.

shown in the accompanying drawing, where- 1n:

Fig. 1 is a vertical transverse section through a coat and hat rack provided with a central hook-bar and detachable hooks mounted thereon;

Fig. .2 is a side elevation of the hook-bar, the hooks in position thereon, with parts broken away, and the adjacent parts of the end frames;

Fig. 3 is, on the left side, a vertical longitudinal section through one end portion of the hook-bar and adjacent parts of the end frame, and, on the right side, a side elevation of the other end portion of the hook-bar and adjacent parts of the end frame, both section and eievation being shown with the hooks re moved;

F ig.4 is a section on the line 4-4: of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 55 of Fig, i

3; and

Fig. 6 is a section through one of the hooks, detached from the hook-bar, on the line 66 of Fig. 2.

The invention is shown applied to a rack comprising a knock-down framework or skeleton structure made up of a number of detachable elements or units. These elements or units include two end frames, each designated generally by the reference character A, a lower combined coat-hook carrying frame and hat shelf B, and an overlying shelf C adapted to support hats, parcels and the like. Below the lower shelf is a hook-supporting bar D. The end frames are set vertically and are detachably connected by the horizontal shelf elements B and C, bar D,.and braces, not shown, so as to provide a rigid structure. As above suggested,

the combined coat-hook carrying frame and hat shelf B may be replaced by a frame having a series of apertures therein for engagement with coat hangers.

The hook-bar D is built up of top and bottom channels 10, 11 and side plates 12 welded thereto, so as to form a hollow bar with upstanding and depending flanges on both sides. The positioning of the channels 10, 11 with respect to the side plates 12 in making the hook bar is aided by punching portions of the latter inwardly to form projections 31, positioned so that when the bot toms of the channels rest thereagainst the latter are in proper position with regard to the side plates. The hook-bar is supported at its ends by channel members 13, the sides of which releasably embrace the end frames A, while the central webs are connected to the ends of the barrD by angles 14 each of which is welded to such webs and to one or other of the channels 10 and 11. The members 13 are releasably clamped to the frames A by bolts 17.

The hooks 18 are permanently secured to hook plates 19 by placing small steel cups 20 in the screw holes of the hooks and then spot-welding the bottoms of the cups to the plates 19 therebeneath.

The upper and lower edges of the plates 19 are turned rearwardly and then inwardly, as shown more particularly in Fig. 6, to form spaced ofi flanges 23 and 241 respectively, providing grooves which slidably receive the flanges of the hook-bar D.

It will be noted that the hook-bar is made wider than either the end frames A or the members 13, so that these parts offer no obstruction to sliding the hook plates with their hooks on and off the ends of the hookbars. With this construction, the hook plates and hooks thereon may be threaded onto the hook-bar flanges one at a time until the bar is filled.

The hook plates may be held in position longitudinally of the bar in various ways; most desirably, by means of a clamping plate 15 adapted to engage the hook plate of the end hook at each end of the line of hooks. These clamping plates are long enough to extend over the flanges of the hook plates, so that, when the former are drawn down by screws 16, the flanges of the hook plates are pressed against the upper flanges of the hook-bar D. The clamping plates are stiffened by turning the transverse sides upwardly to form obliquely outwardly extending flanges 21, which also serve as cam surfaces to allow the hook plate flanges to be pushed thereunder when the screws 16 are loosened. The plates 15 are additionally strengthened by plates 27 welded to the underside thereof. These plates 27 have downwardly turned flanges extending between the flanges on the hook-bar D and hence serving to restrict the turning of the plates 15 about the screws 16.

The clamping screws 16 extend through apertures in the channels 10 to engage nuts 29 held in position by stampings 30, each having a rectangular depression to receive the nut. Instead of welding the laterally extending flanges of the stampings 30 directly to the underside of the channel 10, they are welded to short thick reinforcing plates 28 which are, in turn, welded to the underside of the channel. These reinforcing plates are used to enable the channels to be made of thin stock which would, unless supported or strengthened, buckle or bend when the screws 16 are tightened.

If the flanges on the hook-bar were of uni form width throughout, the replacement of a broken hook would involve removing all hooks between the hook to be replaced and the nearest end of the hook-bar. This is avoided in the construction shown by cutting away portions of the lower flanges of the hook-bar, as at 22, sufficiently deeply to clear the lower flanged edge 2% of the hook plates (see Fig. 4). The hook plates are made wide at the top and narrow at the bottom so that when the tops are in contact, as shown in Fig. 2, the bottoms are separated by a considerable distance. This separation of the lower parts of the hook plates enables the cutaway portions 22 of the hook-bar flanges to be made somewhat wider than the bottoms of the hook plates and still leave a considerable part of the lower flange of the hook-bar between adjacent cutaway portions. These cutaway portions are spaced center to center, the maximum width of the hook plates, so that if a line of closely abutting hook plates, as shown in Fig. 2, is moved half the width of one hook plate to the right (or left), then the lower flanged edge 24 of each hook in the line is brought into register with one of the cutaway portions 22. Any one of the hooks can then be detached from the hook-bar without removing any of the other hooks by merely moving the lower part of the hook plate outwardly and then lifting it out of engagement with the upper flange of the hook-bar. A new hook is then inserted in its place and the line of hooks is moved back half the width of one hook to its original position, when the hooks are again locked in position.

This cutaway flange construction also avoids the necessity of making the hook-bar wider than either the end frames A or the members 13, since the hooks may be attached intermediate the ends of the hook-bar instead of being threaded onto one end of the latter. Such narrow construction of the hook-bar, however, does not allow the end hook plates to overlap the end frames A or the members 13, as shown on the left side of Fig. 2, and, hence, restricts somewhat the number of hooks which may be employed.

The hook plates 19 when made of thin sheet steel are preferably strengthened by pressing embossed ribs 25 therein. Number-holding slides26 may be welded onto the top of the hook plates 19 and the ribs 25 then serve as stops to keep the celluloid or the like number strips in position in such slides.

In making racks of the hanger type the hook-bars D are used without any hooks thereon.

hat is claimed is:

A coat rack, comprising a horizontal bar having upstanding and depending flanges, and a series of hook plates each carrying a hook and each having spaced-oil flanges at both top and bottom adapted slidably to 6111 brace said flanges, the bottom flanges of the hook plates being considerably shorter than the maximum Width of such plates, said depending flanges having a series of cutaway portions each deep and Wide enough to clear the lower spaced-off flange on each hook plate and spaced from center to center the maximum width of the hook plates so that by sliding a line of closely abutting hook plates half the Width of one of the plates the latter are moved from locked to unlocked position or vice versa.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

WILLIAM P. DE SAUSSURE, JR. 

